Nomura to buy Citi's Japan trust bank for $196 million

Citigroup agreed to sell its Japanese trust bank to a unit of Nomura Holdings for 19 billion yen ($196 million), as it looks to raise cash by exiting businesses in the world's second-largest economy.

Nomura Trust and Banking Co said it would buy all shares in NikkoCiti Trust and Banking, creating one of the country's largest trust banks with about 24 trillion yen in combined assets under trust.

Citigroup had been looking for a buyer for the trust bank since May after Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Japan's largest bank, which had been in negotiations to buy the asset, pulled away from the deal.

Nomura said the acquisition is scheduled to be completed as early as October, subject to regulatory approvals, and would not include any liabilities related to NikkoCiti's exposure to loans originated by the now-bankrupt money lender SFCG Co.

Citigroup has already sold Japanese brokerage Nikko Cordial and key investment banking assets to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, the country's third-largest bank, for about $5.9 billion.

It is also looking to sell its Japanese asset management arm, Nikko Asset Management, and telemarketer Bellsystem24 Inc, sources have told Reuters. The deals are expected to raise more than $1 billion each.